South Texas residents living near billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX launch site will soon decide whether they'll be officially recognized as Starbase, Texas.

If a majority of the roughly 500 residents living around the South Texas site vote yes in May, Starbase will be the state’s newest city.

In Brownsville, the city and local hospital have helped residents lose more than 23,000 pounds since 2008.

Citing all the work the company has put into the region, employees are requesting a special election in Cameron County to incorporate a city.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) announced this week that Cameron County reported the first locally acquired case of dengue virus for 2024.

Flores briefly represented the district after winning a 2022 special election. Gonzalez went on to beat her by nearly 9 points in the general.

The first-term Republican defending her seat said a private school voucher program will help her community, especially students from low-income families.

A Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmate who escaped from its Huntsville unit Sunday is now back in law enforcement custody.

This week’s ruling was the latest twist since cities and groups in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley sued to block the projects.

Many of the solutions are costly, putting them out of reach for small towns. But the region's most populous cities are getting innovative.

Cascos began his political career as a Democrat but later flipped to the Republican Party.

Texas is losing an estimated 1,000 acres of farm land a day, mostly to other industries. The Rio Grande Valley is losing land at a faster clip.

Cameron County Park Rangers recovered the body of a missing 14-year-old swimmer who was reportedly in distress Sunday morning.

In a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of her toddler.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is negotiating a land trade involving part of Boca Chica State Park.

Monday’s vote lets Texas Parks and Wildlife staff begin negotiations to swap 43 acres in the park for 477 acres next to a federal wildlife refuge.

The group is “helping to build party infrastructure at the regional level, because the various regions of our state are distinct and therefore require different strategies,” a PAC official said.

A shooting stemming from two separate vehicle pursuits in Cameron County claimed the life of a San Benito police officer, according to reports.

Brownsville is the last major deepwater port in Texas that doesn’t have large fossil fuel projects. The 750-acre facility will export Texas natural gas to other countries.

Authorities say one person was killed and a curfew was imposed after a powerful tornado tore through a community near the southern tip of Texas on the Gulf coast.

Truckers have reported waiting up to 24 hours to cross the border because of the inspections. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered similar inspections last year to stop smuggling, but troopers found no contraband after checking more than 4,000 vehicles.

Environmental groups claim the Federal Aviation Administration let SpaceX do its own environmental assessment before its rocket self-destructed above the Texas coast and debris rained down over a wide area.

An 18-year-old was arrested earlier this week after allegedly hunting and killing an alligator at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, according to a report from Valley Central.

A company planning to build a massive liquefied natural gas export facility near Brownsville says carbon capture technology will reduce its pollution, but some locals say it’s a “Band-Aid on a bullet hole.”

Assault happened Christmas Day in Cameron County

For some local relief programs, a lack of staffing, political support and effective community outreach got in the way of spending federal funds to prevent evictions, a new report found. More than $30 million went unspent and had to be returned.

Mayra Flores, a Republican, won a special election to fill the unexpired term of U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela. Another election will be held in November.

The Cameron County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a missing 81-year-old man who is diagnosed with cognitive impairment and whose disappearance poses a credible threat to his own health and safety.

Designed more than a century ago, the Rio Grande Valley’s canal system in South Texas was built to irrigate the booming agricultural industry that once dominated the local economy.

In a story published Oct. 9, 2021, about Allen West being diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia, The Associated Press misspelled Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s last name in two references in the story and once in the summary.

Congressional Democrats are going bigger than ever on the environment, with a spending package they're trying to muscle through.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk said on Twitter that he would donate $20 million to Cameron County schools and $10 million to the City of Brownsville for “downtown revitalization.” The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said he would release more details next week.

Mountain lions, like this one pictured on the US Forest Service website, are not known for consuming human flesh. HARLINGEN, Texas – A mountain lion was hit and killed by a car traveling near Highway 77 in Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley over the weekend, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials said. According to a statement from TPWD provided to KSAT, the mountain lion was killed north of Harlingen. He said when a young mountain lion does that it can go as far as 300 miles from where it was born. And that’s really important to remember.”To date, officials have reported two mountain lion sightings in Cameron County within the last year and 36 across the state.

Cameron County residents line up in the early hours of the morning to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-in distribution site in Los Fresnos. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas TribuneNeed to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Almost a year into the pandemic, COVID-19 is still rampant across the state. While doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have begun to arrive — and more are coming — it will be months still before it is broadly available to the public. And for the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Efforts by officials in one South Texas county to delay the start of face-to-face classes due to the coronavirus pandemic could face a legal challenge on claims of religious freedom. But attorneys for two private religious schools have told the county that the order is unlawful and goes against Republican Gov. Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said First Liberty is misconstruing the county’s order regarding schools as an attack on religious freedom. The number of reported coronavirus cases in Texas increased by 3,493 and there were 104 more deaths due to COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, Texas health officials reported Sunday. State health officials reported 114,391 active cases of the virus and that 451,776 people have recovered.

HOUSTON – Officials in South Texas, hit by the coronavirus pandemic in recent weeks, said Friday they’re also prepared to handle any challenges from Tropical Storm Hanna, which was headed their way and expected to strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall this weekend. Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales said she understands that the tropical storm would exacerbate already difficult times the county, which has about 362,000 residents, has been experiencing during the pandemic. South Texas officials' plans for any possible rescues, shelters and monitoring of the storm will have the pandemic in mind. In the Mexican city of Matamoros, located across the border from Brownsville, volunteers worried whether the tropical storm would impact a makeshift migrant camp near the Rio Grande River. Greg Abbott has announced that various resources to respond to the tropical storm are on standby across the state, including search-and-rescue teams and aircraft.

SAN ANTONIO – Hospitals across the Rio Grande Valley have been at capacity and are making major adjustments to treat COVID-19 patients. Dr. Christopher Romero with Valley Baptist Medical Center said they have to get creative to make space for patients. Romero said EMS units are waiting with COVID-19 patients for a long time because there’s no room in the hospital. “The Rio Grande Valley, we have a lot of obesity. And these are risk factors for having more severe disease and worse outcomes with COVID-19,” Romero said.

SAN ANTONIO – Medina Lake Park in Bandera County will be closed this Fourth of July weekend due to the coronavirus pandemic. The park, which is operated by the county, will stay closed until Wednesday, July 8, due to the virus, according to officials. The boat ramp at the park will also be closed to the public. Medina Lake Park is just one of the dozens of recreational areas in Central and South Texas that will not be open during the biggest holiday of the summer due to the virus. Cameron County, which includes South Padre Island, has also announced all county parks and county beaches will be closed over the weekend.

Cameron County, Tx – Cameron County announced Monday that effective at 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 30, all County Parks and County Beach access area will be closed. Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. has ordered the closure of county parks and beach access areas until 12:01 a.m. on July 13. The Department of Health and Human Services has reported 2,183 cases in Cameron County as of June 29. The closure of the parks does not affect parks and beach accesses that are owned and operated privately. The following parks and beach access areas will be closed to the public: